Almost Lover
by Breathyaoinotoxygen
Summary: Freed x Laxus/ Laxus x Mirajane


**Freed had never felt this way before. **

So distraught, so angry, so HURT.

The dragon slayer had led him on. That was undeniable. They had kissed, they had even done... That. So what had he done to deserve this? His years of deep devotion to the other, those confessions he had made, everything in vain. The lightning dragon slayer did not love him. He had turned away the rune mage and gone off with the blonde bartender, that typical relationship everyone had expected.

Freed sat on the edge of the bathroom counter, staring down at his naked body. He hadn't said a word against Laxus's relationship with Mirajane. If anything, he had forced himself to pretend he supported it whole-heartedly.

"Come on, Freed. Is it worth it?" He muttered to himself. He looked down at the object in his hand. A blue stick of plastic with a single sharp metal blade at the end. An eyebrow shaver of sorts, purchased for this exact reason.

He lived for Laxus. He could not handle this aching he had felt in his heart the past few weeks. He could not hurt that relationship, he had to make sure Laxus was happy. He had to eliminate himself. He wasn't good enough. He looked at the thigh lined with scars and lifted his wrist. He had always been scared to bring the blade to his wrist, scared to hit an artery, and always had craved to watch his own blood drip down his right thigh anyways. But now he needed to slit the skin at his wrist. To bring it all to a halt.

He swallowed hard as his eyes welled up with tears. It was all for his Thunder God. All for the man he loved. This had to be done. He had to do this for Laxus- so as to not be in the way. All he was and would be was a reminder of that past relationship that Laxus had hidden from everyone else that had suddenly come to a screeching halt. The blonde hadn't treated him the same since it all happened. He avoided the rune mage.

Freed decided if he did it right then and there, nobody would stop him. Laxus, Evergreen, and Bixlow were all in the indoor pool of the hotel they were staying in. So it was now or never. He took a deep, shaking breath and sliced the blade across his wrist.

Pain shot through his arm as he let himself go, slashing at the skin over and over, watching the beads of blood drip down his skin and onto the counter. So satisfying, to see his own blood, to be able to take out his anger and sorrow on someone... Even if it was himself. He needed to see the blood. He slashed deeper, more and more, shivering as that mass of bloodied flesh on his arm glistened with red. What was he doing to himself?

Blood pooled onto the counter, soaking the long green hair resting on the surface, and Freed was beginning to feel dizzy.

Why was this what made him feel so much better?

He grabbed the blade and made the deepest cut so far, overlapping others atop of it before screaming.

No.

No.

No.

He didn't want to die.

Oh gods he wanted to live.

He screamed again, falling off the counter and onto his knees on the floor.

"What am I doing to myself?" He sobbed. "Laxus! LAXUS!"

Darkness blurred his vision as his body swayed, collapsing onto the floor in a lifeless heap after one last scream.

•••

Laxus heard a faint scream of his name and looked over to Bixlow. "You hear that?"

The seith mage shrugged. "No idea. You can go check it out if you want."

"I'm going to. You stay here. I'll come back in a few."

Laxus wrapped a towel around his waist and exited the pool, trudging up the flight of stairs to the hotel room. He fumbled with the key until he got the door open. Honestly, he did not want to see the rune mage right now. But, in the chance that something was wrong and Laxus didn't just need to get his ears checked, he knew he had to come up here. He shut the door behind him and noticed part of the grey rug next to the bathroom door was wet. He walked over and pulled the door open.

"Oh Mavis... Oh no... FREED!" Laxus fell to his knees beside the lifeless rune mage. A pool of crimson blood was on the floor beneath him, flowing thickly from his mangled mess of a wrist. There was no note, no last message, nothing. Just this dead body of Freed Justine, Fairy Tail's most powerful rune mage.

Laxus barely ever cried but he was crying now. It was his fault and he knew it. The whole thing with Mira. He had brought his captain to do... This. He tried to wake him up, but it was all in vain.

Freed Justine was dead.


End file.
